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Young woman lifting barbells

Growing up, the words “athlete” and “Brooke Sousa” were rarely used in the same sentence. The Westerville resident said all that has changed in the past year.

After becoming “addicted” to Strongwoman competitions, Sousa can’t believe she will be competing in the Arnold Sports Festival March 3-6 in the Bricker Building in the Ohio Exposition Center.

“Last year, we sat in the crowd watching the Strongwoman competition and it was our dream to get there,” Sousa said. “My coach (Bob Howell) had a lot of faith in me and he gave up a lot of his time to help get me there. We both knew last March we had a lot of work to do but he kept asking me ‘How hard are you going to work to get there?’”

“I haven’t seen anyone strength wise excel like she has,” Howell said. “After two weeks of working out with her, I told her if she trusted me, we could get her to compete in the world’s strongest woman competition (at the Arnold). Now here we are.”

Strongwoman competitions test a person’s ability to lift and move objections. The contests usually involve five feats of strength but the events vary from competition to competition.

Deadpool character pointing a gun at a teddy bear

Marvel and Fox Studios’ R-rated superhero action/comedy Deadpool, a gamble of a movie that required some “leaked” test footage and a fan campaign just to get made, is now breaking box office records. In addition to a stellar opening weekend that surpassed any of Fox Studios’ other X-Men-related movies, as of this writing it’s on its way to becoming the highest-grossing R-rated movie ever.

This flies in the face of “common wisdom” in Hollywood that superhero movies just can’t make money without that under-17 audience. And while an R-rated superhero movie may never make as much as a kid-friendly, PG-13 Avengers, Deadpool proves that a good one can still outperform an average PG-13 one.

The problem is that some in Hollywood are learning all the wrong lessons from Deadpool’s success.

Chunks of marinated tofu with veggies

Jiu Thai is an Asian Northern Chinese style (not Thai) restuarant that does a dish called Tiger Tofu that is absolutely delicious. They are very accommodating and flexible with their menu, which has several veganizable and gluten-free possibilities, just be clear what you need, (Nicole and Welling on their team are savvy on what vegans need). Many dishes come with animal products that can be otherwise substituted for tofu or a different sauce without sea-based or land-based animals in it. Caution- Two menu items do not indicate there are animals in them: 1) Biang Biang Noodle does not state it comes with strips of cow flesh in it, and 2) Peking Zhab Jaing Noodle has ground pigs in the sauce.

Two animal puppets

Two wildly imaginative worlds open up on area movie screens this week. Both mix gorgeous animated photography with important life lessons for kids old enough to appreciate them.

The more mainstream offering is Disney’sZootopia, the story of a plucky rabbit who’s determined to become the first member of her species to pin on a badge.

Judy Hopps (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin) grows up in an anthropomorphic world where all animals—predators and prey alike—have learned to live in peace with each other. Even so, not all of the old differences have been forgotten. When Judy prepares to leave her hometown to join the Zootopia Police Academy, her parents warn her to watch out for big-city foxes.

Wouldn’t you know it, her first day on the job brings her into contact with Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman), a sly fox who makes his living with schemes that fall just short of illegality.

Frustrated that her chief (Idris Elba) has assigned her to the parking patrol, Judy is determined to prove she’s capable of real police work. But her efforts backfire when she gets involved in a chase that nearly demolishes a neighborhood inhabited by tiny rodents.

Mary Yoder with two Palestinian children

JP Marat: What is your name? 

Mary: My name is Mary Yoder. I’m a registered Nurse in Columbus, Ohio. 

Tell us about yourself

I grew up in a big Mennonite family. I’m a member of Christian Peacemaker Teams and Jewish Voice for Peace. Both groups advocate for human rights for the Palestinian people.

Don’t Israelis and Palestinians all want to live in peace?

Yes! I’ve met many good people on both sides who want to live in peace and harmony but Israeli government policy makes that impossible.

What attracted you to Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT)?

I’ve always been interested in communal living. I like getting to know people on a deeper level than just being casual friends at work. CPT empowered me to live that way while working for Peace and Justice in Palestine. I attended preliminary training in Chicago for four weeks then traveled to Palestine for three months. During our time in Chicago we studied advocacy, after trauma care, acting as a human shield, lobbying local government organizations, nonviolent resistance, etc.

Legalize Ohio logo

Since my last article, a mere four months ago, I was lamenting Responsible Ohio’s crash and burn 66-34% defeat on Election Night 2015. Good grief! After a year of twists and turns and ups and downs and ins and outs, it was hard to believe that this $25 million-dollar campaign to legalize marijuana in Ohio could fail so miserably. Some said RO’s loss was the end of marijuana in Ohio, some said just wait for something better in 2016, some said the election results smelled funny.

If 2015 was a rollercoaster in Ohio cannabis reform, 2016 portends to be even more bizarre. Don’t believe me? Let’s look at just the four months since RO’s defeat in CannaTime:

November 3, 2015:Election Day. Responsible Ohio badly loses its bid to legalize marijuana in Ohio. Stunned, RO’s raucous Executive Director Ian James declares in his election night speech, we’ll be back! Definitely on the 2016 ballot.

November 4, 2015:No, it can’t be true! Well, maybe it isn’t. Implausible irregularities in RO’s 66-34% loss are detected.

People holding Yes We Can sign

The election Columbus should really care about this year happens on March 15.

The 2016 primary can set in motion changes that will make a real difference for people living and working in Columbus − changes that seem out of reach when we look at the Ohio Statehouse or Washington. New alliances are developing at the local level to fight for a future with more equitable wages, healthier neighborhoods and more accountable political structures. Yes We Can Columbus is an emerging political movement poised to replace government corruption with mass participation, starting right where we live.

Where We’ve Been: Municipal Reform and the Progressive Era

Over one hundred years ago, activists mobilized to stop child labor, take down political machines, and challenge the bonds of concentrated wealth and political power. And they did it starting in their cities.

And so it begins. A 10-year pollworker named Diane contacted the Free Press. She had just gone through three hours of training and gave the Free Press her manuals. She said she had been ordered to re-take the training because she had asked too many questions about counting paper ballots during training.

“They came in with a stack of 800 ballots from the last election that had never been counted. One they weren’t going to count because the city and zip code had been left off even though there was an address on it,” she explained. “I asked them why if the voter has already shown ID with his address on it and you’ve given him a ballot based on the candidates running in that precinct where he lives, why would you not count his vote when you have his name, street address, and date of birth?”

Diane noted that she was told not to tell voters to fill in the required information before they left. “Why do you have to sit there and watch them walk out and know their vote won’t be counted when you could tell them to fill it all in?”

Cover of Free Press, artist rendering of Bernie Sanders, people marching in the background

It’s Monday night at Dempsey’s, a perennial Democratic Party meet-up spot in downtown Columbus. The Ohio presidential primary is five weeks away. Powerful members of the Franklin County Democratic Central Committee are meeting to plot strategy against an unprecedented grassroots attack upon the Party’s ward leaders. The ward leaders are the ones responsible for the official Party candidate endorsements.

Even more unfathomable than a populist revolt among local Dems is what’s going on in the back room at Dempsey’s. The room is packed with political supporters of a 74-year-old self-proclaimed “democratic Socialist” – an independent Senator from Vermont running for president. Many are doing electoral major party politics for the first time and were unaware of the local powerbrokers they just squeezed past. The folks in the back room all have one thing in common – they’re feeling the Bern.

Kasich giving a speech

Tuesday March 15 is just around the corner and the national media hordes will be descending into central Ohio, the swing region in the swing state, to cover the presidential primary.

On the Democratic side, the slugfest between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders will be coming to a head with Sanders needing a victory to overcome Clinton's growing lead..

Former Gov. Ted Strickland is also on the ballot, trying to fend off challenger and Cincinnati councilman P.G. Sittenfeld for the U.S. Senate Democratic nomination. Ordinarily, Strickland, well-known and well-liked by Ohio Democrats, would be home free against a little-known newcomer, but Sittenfeld has been cozying up to the Sanders campaign and could ride a Sanders wave into contention, even an upset.

Strickland is a longtime Clinton supporter, owing her for helping him win a close race his southeast Ohio Congressional seat way back when. Strickland could be harmed and Sittenfeld helped if Clinton slumps or is wounded by the FBI investigation of her emails while secretary of state.

IMPLICATIONS FOR FRANKLIN COUNTY

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